Bouwlust has existed as an independent boarding house for over three decades

We are a completely independent organisation. Day in day out, Bas Bouwlust still offers the same care and attention to its children as it did in 1982, the year in which the boarding house was founded. As you would expect, our working methods and manner of care have evolved with the times. However, our intention has remained the same: to offer ‘our’ children a ‘home away from home’; to the best of our ability.

Our ‘home away from home’ is primarily offered to Dutch children with expat parents (people who live or work abroad). The majority of ‘our’ children have Dutch nationality, or some form of bond with the Netherlands.

People with a mission

Providing a ‘home’ to children in secondary education means more than facilitating food, drink, a bed, a room and supervision; at least as far as we are concerned. As staff and employees of Bouwlust, we are there to support ‘our’ children: to comfort, have a conversation, answer questions, joke around, keep a watchful eye and an attentive ear. We are well-trained at reading between the lines and picking up the signals of what makes ‘our’ children tick. This is our job and our calling. Running a home like Bas Bouwlust is a wonderful job but above all – a mission.

Keeping up with the times

With the advent of social media and other forms of communication, parents and children can remain in almost continuous contact. This offers a number of advantages:

The ‘distance’ between parent and child is reduced

The mutual feelings of absence are lessened

Children can share the events of their daily lives with those ‘close’ to them

Everything can be discussed

As a result, the staff and employees of Bas Bouwlust have experienced how their roles have changed. Children are more inclined to contact the ‘home front’ and do so more frequently than was previously the case. While that is fine, it is also not uncommon for the understandable parental concerns to not be entirely geared to the situation at hand. This too is understandable: children share their experiences and their parents process the information at a distance – a significant difference to when the family is together. Naturally, we are always available for consultation with concerned parents, via an online conversation for example.